alcohol use disorder

noun

variants or less commonly alcohol-use disorder

plural alcohol use disorders also alcohol-use disorders

: a medical condition characterized by a pattern of frequent and usually excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, by strong cravings for alcohol often accompanied by episodes of depression, anxiety, or distress, by symptoms (such as restlessness or sweating) of alcohol withdrawal, and by the impaired ability to stop or control the intake of alcohol despite adverse effects on one's work, school, or family obligations

Note: Alcohol use disorder ranges from mild to severe and is typically considered to encompass conditions also referred to as alcohol dependence, alcohol abuse, alcohol addiction, and alcoholism.

Over the long term, teen alcohol use can interfere with normal brain development and can increase the chance that the teens will develop an alcohol use disorder later in life.

—Cindy Kurman

About 40 to 50 soldiers assigned to Fort Meade are now undergoing treatment for alcohol use disorders.

—Lisa Rhodes

An estimated 18 million Americans suffer from alcohol-use disorder, as the DSM-5, the latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual, calls it. … Only about 15 percent of those with alcohol-use disorder are at the severe end of the spectrum. The rest fall somewhere in the mild-to-moderate range …

—Gabrielle Glaser

—abbreviation AUD

Examples of alcohol use disorder in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

People with alcohol use disorder can have progressive brain changes that affect thinking and cognition. —Katia Hetter, CNN Money, 9 Apr. 2025

There are already three medications approved to treat alcohol use disorder, so until larger studies can confirm the findings, people should talk to their doctor about what’s already available, said lead author Christian Hendershot, an addiction researcher at USC. —Carla K. Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 12 Feb. 2025

Drug or Alcohol Use Excess recreational drug use or drinking are central signs of alcohol use disorder and substance use disorder.20 People with depression, anxiety disorder, or PTSD may turn to alcohol or substances in an effort to self-regulate. —Mark Gurarie, Verywell Health, 27 Feb. 2025

The National Institute of Health estimated that 28.9 million, or just over one in ten, teenagers and adults in the U.S. had alcohol use disorder in 2023. —Miyo McGinn, Outside Online, 25 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for alcohol use disorder

• boarder
• border
• corder
• order
• warder
• camcorder
• recorder
• reorder
• suborder
• transborder

Medical Definition

alcohol use disorder

noun

variants also alcohol-use disorder

: a medical condition characterized by a pattern of frequent and usually excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, by strong cravings for alcohol often accompanied by episodes of depression, anxiety, or distress, by symptoms (such as restlessness or sweating) of alcohol withdrawal, and by the impaired ability to stop or control the intake of alcohol despite adverse effects on one's work, school, or family obligations

Note: Alcohol use disorder ranges from mild to severe and is typically considered to encompass conditions also referred to as alcohol dependence, alcohol abuse, alcohol addiction, and alcoholism.

Alcohol use disorder, a problematic pattern of alcohol use accompanied by clinically significant impairment or distress, is present in up to 14% of US adults during a 1-year period, although only about 8% of affected individuals are treated in an alcohol treatment facility.

—Henry R. Kranzler and Michael Soyka, The Journal of the American Medical Association

Despite physicians' awareness of the importance of screening and probing for alcohol use disorders, one problem that might explain the failure of screening to become routine could be that physicians "aren't sure what to do once they obtain a history" that suggests a problem, Dr. [Keith A.] Nichols said.

—Naseem S. Miller, Internal Medicine News

An estimated 18 million Americans suffer from alcohol-use disorder, as the DSM-5, the latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual, calls it. … Only about 15 percent of those with alcohol-use disorder are at the severe end of the spectrum. The rest fall somewhere in the mild-to-moderate range …

—Gabrielle Glaser, The Atlantic

—abbreviation AUD